2 Paladins, 1 Raid : Healing with Another Holy Paladin

Team Pally! I’ve always loved the sound of that. The whole “I’m part of something grand and wondrous and amazing”…ok maybe it’s not quite that exciting. But still, the coordination of blessings and judgments between all the paladins in the raid and paying attention to beacons and shields between holy paladins are aspects of the class that I especially enjoy.

That and how it gives me an excuse to chase people around to talk about pally stuff: “YOUR BEEAAAAAACON I KNOW YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT YOUR BEEEEAAAAACON!!!!! HEEEEYYY!! WHY ARE YOU SWITCHING VENT CHANNELS WHILE I’M TRYING TO TALK ABOUT BEEEAAACONS??”

Having two holy paladins in a 10 man team can be a royal pain, unless you outgear the content. Last time I tried (tried 2 paladins in a 10 man, not tried to out gear content), it was a Sindragosa fight and it wasn’t pretty. So I’m not going to get all creative with how to play 10 mans with double paladin healers. I’ll leave that challenge to others. (Aren’t I nice?)

25 man, though, that’s a different story. Two holy paladins? Yes please! 3 is doable as well, depending on what the rest of your healing team looks like. (If they’re ugly, you might need a third paladin to up the hotness factor.) So let’s talk about that today. Having 2 paladins in a 25 man and making the most of it.
Getting to Know Each Other

Getting to know each other as healers, of course. I like knowing all about my teammates because I’m nosey, but just knowing about how they heal does a lot to make the job easier. If you know that Jack ALWAYS lags out between seconds 15 and 28 of a fight, you know to when to cover for him. If you know that Linda has jedi reflexes, you know she’s got you covered if you happen to get a hand spasm. (Hey it happens, ok)

These are pretty extreme scenarios, but figuring out your partner’s strengths and weaknesses goes a long way in adjusting your own playstyle. It would be lovely if we all healed exactly the way EJ tells us to, but the majority of us don’t play like machines, so getting to know to your partner and adapting to each other gives that extra ooomph to your performance.

Some might enjoy some friendly competition with their fellow paladin. It’s certainly an option. Me, though, I’d rather gang on up the squishies. Team pally vs team who dies all the time. Oh yes.

I always know which paladins don’t track others’ Sacred Shields (SS). It’s easy to tell because they overwrite mine. Well, on some occasions, we do it to each other to be pests but, most of the time, having your SS overwritten means your partner isn’t watching. So let them SS first and pick another target. If they forget to refresh it, you’re free to steal their target if you want.

I can’t tell you how to track other people’s buffs with Healbot or Vudho (I’m a fail blogger, I know, sorry!), but if you want a walkthrough of how to do it on Grid, read this guide from Dristanel.

Using Beacons Together

If you’re tracking your partner’s Beacon, you don’t even have to ask them who they’re Beaconing, you can just look at your frames. If they’re waiting for you to make the first move, do it. You can move your Beacon as the fight goes on if you have to.

Two paladins can Beacon the same target. It won’t overwrite.

Whether or not you want to Beacon the same target is up to you. Some fights work better that way, some fights work better when you cross Beacon (such as, one person Beacons Tank A and heals Tank B, the other Beacons Tank B and heals Tank A). And in some fights are completely unconventional (Beaconning Mark targets during Saurfang, for example). Keep in mind that a Beaconned target receives a constant stream of healing while directly healing a target has the advantage of allowing you some extra control.

Sacred Shields do Overwrite

You can’t SS the same target.

Look to see where your partner is putting theirs and put yours somewhere else. There are lots of ways to use SS (I actually started a post on that way back, but never finished it…so I have nothing to link to here) and you don’t necessarily have to SS a tank. Anyone taking a steady stream of damage makes a good target. SS is one of those tools that are kinda subtle, but since they’re there, you might as well wring out as much use as you can from them.

Talents and Judgments and Blessings and Technicalities

It’s nice to coordinate talents so one paladin has Improved Concentration Aura and the other has Improved Wisdom.

For judgments, if there’s no other paladins, one of you judges Light and the other judges Wisdom to keep the hunters happy. Most likely, both of you will want to judge Light (damn you meter padders!) so if you can’t agree, take turns, draw straws, flip a coin, whatever. I avoid this problem by having a prot and a ret paladin in the raid. (Extended Team Pally FTW)

Blessings are managed with Pally Power. If you’re unlucky and don’t have any other paladins, one of you will be blessing Kings, the other Wisdom/Might to taste.

The Glorious Holy Light/Flash of Light duo

If you read about holy paladins, you’ll be smacked in the face with the words “Holy Light build” and “Flash of Light build”. The short of it is Holy Light paladins stack intellect and use Holy Light as their base spell, Flash of Light paladins are mysterious and stack spell power and rely on Flash of Light. If this surprises you, you can find out more here.

Does a Holy Light paladin play well with a Flash of Light paladin?

In my experience, yes, but it’s dependent on the players. A Flash of Light build is lacking in versatility, requires gear that’s top notch for the content you’re running as well as pretty good reflexes. Two Holy Light paladins can still be a kickass team, but if one of you is dying to try a Flash of Light build and has the right gear, then be all means, go for it. I really enjoyed being a Holy Light paladin with a Flash of Light partner.

And Now Try to Get Along

I’m a big mush, so I get really attached to my partners. I still ask about the first fellow holy paladin I raided with a few years ago. She’s long since left WoW and I miss her. When my last partner decided to quit raiding, I spent the next few raids whining about how I couldn’t play without him. (I think I’m a large part of the reason why my guild keeps claiming that paladins are emo. Damn my emoness.) I got a new partner shortly before I left for vacation, so I’m just starting to creep get to know him. We seem to have similar temperaments, which means we’ll either be the most awesome kickass crazy team pally EVAIR or we’ll rip each other’s heads off and leave a bloody mess that will need to be cleaned up.

Working closely with another paladin adds so much to the game, especially if, like me, you’re the type who really likes to harass talk paladin with other paladins. You’ve got this teammate who (hopefully) can carry on a conversation about your class and who (hopefully) is as passionate about it as you are. Worst case scenario, you’ve got a partner you can watch closely, learn from and become a better healer by synching your playstyle with theirs. Doesn’t sound too bad, no?

Go team pally! I’m ret myself, mostly, but on a good day my guild runs with four pallies in our main raid team for 25s.. hell, we’ve run four pallies in tens sometimes! The best I’ve ever managed was a 7-pally icc25 pug. Sure, that was a couple other rets stealing my loot, but hey.

Pallies are awesome. the more the merrier. Go team pally. boo team squishy!

Hey Ophelie,
How about if both pallies use the “Beacon of Light, Sacred Shield tracker” (or something like that, dont have curse here) addon? We usually run with 2 holy paladins and i asked him to get this addon, that way you (and him) know who is he casting Beacon and SS and when does any of them drop from you or him.

Oh woe is me… my 10 man team contains no less than FIVE (5) paladins. We killed LK with all 5 in the raid (1 prot, 2 ret, 2 holy). The other healer is a resto shaman. Whenever our resto shaman has a night off (like last night), we have three holy pallies (yes, our backup healer is one of the ret pallies). We cleared up to LK and did Rotface HM last night with the 3 pallies, but it’s such hard work… BQL, Sindy… oh my poor fingers and my poor brain… what I wouldn’t give for a HoT :(